The combined powers of Harry Potter, Twilight, and The Hunger Games have opened the floodgates for a tidal wave of sci-fi / fantasy YA adaptations — it seems like a new potential franchise goes into development every week. As with any genre, though, not all of these films are created equal.

The best ones capture the imaginations of young and old alike, while the worst are forgotten almost before they even open. Time will tell where on the spectrum The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones will fall, but feel free to make an educated guess based on the new trailer after the jump.

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Nothing can stop the wave of YA adaptations coming to movie theaters in the next year or two — not even the relative disinterest in the movies. Beautiful Creatures and The Host didn’t really hit so far this year, but there are more to come. Earlier today we saw the trailer for the new Percy Jackson film, and now here’s the first full trailer for The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones.

The film features Lily Collins as a young woman who learns that there is a shadow conflict just out of sight, with half-angel warriors battling demons right before the unseeing eyes of humanity. With her own eyes open to the conflict, Collins’ character is quickly drawn in. This trailer shows far more of the newly-done effects than did the teaser, and it also makes the film look rather like a revamped Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Have a look below.

Paul W.S. Anderson has made so many disasters in his career, it’s about time he made a film about one. (Rimshot) He just started filming Pompeii, a 3D period epic set against the leveling of the titular city from the volcanic eruption of Mount Vesuvius. Kit Harington (Game of Thrones’ Jon Snow) stars as a slave who must rush to save his love (Emily Browning), who’s also the daughter of his master (Jared Harris). Now another major name has been added to the list.

Kiefer Sutherland has just joined Pompeii as the villainous Roman senator who originally enslaved Harington’s character. Read more about the film below. Read More »

Animation house Laika only has two completed features to its name, but thanks to the strength of those two outings (Coraline and ParaNorman), it’s already earned a reputation for unusually smart, creative family fare. Now they’re joining forces with Focus Features a third time for The Boxtrolls, an adaptation of Alan Snow‘s book Here Be Monsters!

The first adaptation of one of Cassandra Clare‘s books in The Mortal Instuments cycle is going to hit screens late next summer, and the first trailer is being released just in time for the last Twilight audience to see it.

The film stars Lily Collins as Clary Fray, who learns that she is in fact a descendant of half-Angel warriors who protect humanity from darkness. She’s drawn towards one such warrior, Jace Wayland (Jamie Cambell Bower) with help from Hodge Starkweather (Jared Harris) after her mother (Lena Headey) disappears.

Briefly: The evil professor Moriarty, arch-enemy of Sherlock Holmes, is about to become the famed Union general and President of the United States Ulysses S. Grant. Steven Spielberg has found one of the last pieces of his Lincoln puzzle in talented character actor Jared Harris, familiar to fans of Mad Men and shortly to be seen in Guy Ritchie’s Sherlock Holmes: A game of Shadows.

The actor joins a massive cast in the key role of General Grant, who was a great supporter of Abraham Lincoln (Daniel Day-Lewis) and might actually have been in the Ford Theater when Lincoln was assassinated had he not chosen to go to Philadelphia instead.

As we’re already halfway through October, we’ll soon see a deluge of new marketing materials for films being released in the coveted holiday window. Kicking things off is a new trailer for Guy Ritchie‘s Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows. This one uses all the same light comedy and heavy speed ramping that was in the first trailer, and confirms that Rachel McAdams returns for at least a cameo. (Unless that is new co-star Noomi Rapace disguised as McAdams, which seems unlikely.) No glimpse of Stephen Fry as Mycroft Holmes, sadly, but we do get to see more of Jared Harris (Mad Men) as arch-villan Dr. Moriarty.

The trailer doesn’t show us a lot more of the interaction between Holmes and Watson (Robert Downey, Jr. and Jude Law) beyond what we saw in previous video, choosing instead to emphasize action. Check it out below and try to determine whether or not Ritchie and writers Kieran Mulroney and Michele Mulroney have managed to inject a little more heart into this sequel.

We gave you an early, low-quality look at footage from Guy Ritchie‘s Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows earlier this week, along with two character posters that gave the first look at the fortune teller played by Noomi Rapace (The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo) and the devious arch-fiend Professor Moriarty, played by Jared Harris.

Now you can see the trailer in full, and in great quality, complete with Holmes in drag, speed-ramped fisticuffs and a moment of Holmes and Watson spooning amidst a hail of bullets. Read More »

One again, we get to see the first footage of a blockbuster via the whizzing graphics and frighteningly cheerful hosts of Entertainment Tonight. The trailer for Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows will premiere this week (see it in front of Harry Potter, or very likely online) but you can check out some footage in an ET preview of the preview. That’s after the break, along with two character posters. Read More »